Graphic Design/Pioneers of Graphic Design

Pictograms and ideograms from some five thousand years ago represent the earliest known forms of graphic design. Traditionally, graphic design's purpose through history was the communication of ideas and meaning through the use of graphic elements like typography, photography, and illustration. Strictly an artistic enterprise in spirit, it stands apart from more traditional arts like painting, printmaking, and sculpture because its ubiquitous role it plays in mass media and technology. These factors and their associated pressures have come to define the utilitity in various parts of this field.

This firm has done work for Chase Manhattan, Best Stores, Univision, and the American Bicentennial campaign. They created the Warner Communications "eye & ear" logo, and Mobil's "big red O" logo. They also designed miniature replicas of the Statue of Liberty.

Gehry is an architect and furniture designer. He has made furniture made of cardboard. He designed the "dancing" "Ginger & Fred" building, the Experience Music Project, and the Disney Music Center. He collaborated with Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen on the Chiat/Day Building, which has an entryway shaped like a pair of binoculars. His most famous building is the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

Glaser was an expressionist who co-founded Push Pin Studios. His typefaces include Glaser Stencil, Rainbow, and Baby Teeth. He is best known for his "I (heart) NY" campaign. He is also the designer of the Childcraft toy store in New York, and the Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Center.

Graves is a postmodernist architect and product designer. Structures that he is known for include the Portland Building, the Clos Pegase winery, the San Juan Capistrano library, the Humana building, the Best building. He was in charge of the restoration of the Washington Monument, and designed the Swan and Dolphin Resort at Walt Disney World in Florida. Graves has designed over 800 products sold through Target stores, from alarm clocks to toasters.

Greiman is a New Wave post-modernist who uses "hybrid imagery." She was one of the first designers to embrace the Apple Macintosh as a design tool. She is best known for her centerfold design for Design Quarterly, which was a complex collage and nude self-portrait.

This firm created the term "corporate identity." They have done work for Pizza Hut, CITGO, Del Monte, American Express, United Tech, Chevron, 76, RCA, Hardee's, Chrysler, American Airlines, Infiniti, Continental, and numerous banks. They designed the new Amtrak logo, the Cadillac Allante, and the look of Duracell coppertop batteries.

Loewy believed that every object had an ideal form that would increase sales. He was a pioneer of streamlining.

His designs were used in Skylab and the Concorde. He also did work for Harper's Bazaar, Greyhound's logo and busses, the Studebaker, Lucky Strike, Coca-Cola, NASA, and Exxon. He created the Coast Guard's logo, and the new logos for Shell and BP.

Lois is known for his "conversation ads." His design strategy was "Big Idea and Street Talk." He created covers for Esquire magazine, USA Today's 5-year anniversary campaign, and Naugahyde's Nauga mascot.

As a Harvard trained architect and industrial designer Noyes became the pioneer of Corporate Design in the development of comprehensive corporate-wide design programs that integrated both design strategy and business strategy. He and is firm were commissioned regularly by IBM, most famously the IBM Selectric typewriter and the IBM Aerospace Research Center in Los Angeles, California. Noyes collaborated with Paul Rand, Charles Eames and hired Chermayeff & Geismar for clients that included Mobil Oil, Cummins Engine and Westinghouse.

Thompson was a typographer. Arguing that it was confusing to have two symbols for one letter, he created "alphabet 26", a set of letters which had only one case. He did work for the Smithsonian magazine, and designed editions of The Red Badge of Courage and the Holy Bible.